Wednesday, May 26, 2010

Is World Cup 2010 changing the image of South Africa?

Is the World Cup Football 2010 really changing the image of South Africa?

I am not so sure. In The Netherlands I am not getting any new images of South Africa. So some comments, quotes and images I picked up these past few days.

I have watched three programs on the Dutch TV about South Africa. The first was a football program, the second a journey-trough-Africa program, and the third was program about the legacy of Charles Darwin (the Beagle).

If I had watched one, I probably would have seen the other two. The topics where race relations in South Africa, poor whites, poor blacks, white supremacists, black activists, Nelson Mandela, Robin Island, and images of the Apartheid. So it was the the “regular” view of South Africa.

However there was conversation in a program (the Beagle) which really shocked me. It was the conversation with genetic scientist Himla Soodyall about how she felt during the days of the 'apartheid' when she spoke to a white person."

She said “O yes of course I was born during the day of apartheid. If you spoke to me 16 or 17 years ago I would probably not even opened my mouth because I would have felt so inferior talking to a white person.

The reporter replied: “So now you are not impressed by me anymore, as a white?“

Laughing she answered : “Fortunately these day when I look at people I don't see colour as an item that I used to take in my person with whom I was contact with. There were times that would have been an issue.”

The images

The Apartheid

Poor whitesTranslation:Exactly. They would have worked with Forest department. [They have lost their privileges they had under the apartheid regime.]

A youth movementTranslation: We don’t tolerate racial polarisation in our country

The South African creoleTranslation: Voice of Himla Soodyall: "That's how it would be here [if there hadn't been apartheid, then creolisation would have taken place], I am almost certain."